We spent 3-4 days in Tsavo West National Park, and then a couple of days in Tsavo East after a brief stop in the Taita Hills. This Gallery shows Tsavo West.
Tsavo is an incredible national park. Between Tsavo West and Tsavo East, it protects approximately 22,000 square KM, making it Kenya's largest national park, and one of the largest in the world. It is famous for it's reddish clay soil, which is evident on elephants and other animals that roll or lie in it. It's in a transitional zone between the temperate Kenya highlands and the humid, tropical coastal areas, and is mostly semi-desert (though Tsavo West has a number of wetlands, as you will see). Due to the semi-desert environment, the wildlife and birdlife is also transitional between the desert areas of northern Kenya and the plains of northern Tanzania just to the south. Tsavo used to be famous for elephants (and man-eating lions!), but toward the end of the 1900s, a majority of the elephants, rhinos, and other animals were poached. Now, the park is well protected and well maintained, so elephants are quite plentiful, though we saw many more of them in Tsavo East than in this western section, so in this gallery I actually don't include any elephant images. In fact, although the park has quite a lot of good wildlife, it's especially famous for its birds, so they dominate this gallery. There's also plenty of beautiful scenery - even some views of Kilimanjaro, from a different angle than the usual on in Amboseli.
I loved the Tsavo experience. We stayed in two wonderful lodges: Kiliguni (where I had stayed with my parents and sister back in 1966!), and Voyagers Camp in the Ziwani area way down near Kilimajaro and the Tanzania border. I think my favorite bird was the Fire-fronted Bishop, with its bright red forehead and brilliant puffy yellow back standing out against the rest of his jet-black feathers. A lifer for me and a beautiful one!
Enjoy!
Tsavo is an incredible national park. Between Tsavo West and Tsavo East, it protects approximately 22,000 square KM, making it Kenya's largest national park, and one of the largest in the world. It is famous for it's reddish clay soil, which is evident on elephants and other animals that roll or lie in it. It's in a transitional zone between the temperate Kenya highlands and the humid, tropical coastal areas, and is mostly semi-desert (though Tsavo West has a number of wetlands, as you will see). Due to the semi-desert environment, the wildlife and birdlife is also transitional between the desert areas of northern Kenya and the plains of northern Tanzania just to the south. Tsavo used to be famous for elephants (and man-eating lions!), but toward the end of the 1900s, a majority of the elephants, rhinos, and other animals were poached. Now, the park is well protected and well maintained, so elephants are quite plentiful, though we saw many more of them in Tsavo East than in this western section, so in this gallery I actually don't include any elephant images. In fact, although the park has quite a lot of good wildlife, it's especially famous for its birds, so they dominate this gallery. There's also plenty of beautiful scenery - even some views of Kilimanjaro, from a different angle than the usual on in Amboseli.
I loved the Tsavo experience. We stayed in two wonderful lodges: Kiliguni (where I had stayed with my parents and sister back in 1966!), and Voyagers Camp in the Ziwani area way down near Kilimajaro and the Tanzania border. I think my favorite bird was the Fire-fronted Bishop, with its bright red forehead and brilliant puffy yellow back standing out against the rest of his jet-black feathers. A lifer for me and a beautiful one!
Enjoy!
